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Chair's Message for September, 2016

Chair Marcee Stone Vekich

by Marcee Stone-Vekich

At our August 10th meeting, we brought together a panel on “The Police and Our Communities of Color.” Thanks to our organizers and the panelists for an excellent presentation and one that deserves more focus than one meeting. Complete video can be seen on the West Seattle Blog.* And as a follow-up, please see a link below regarding the August 15, 2016 hearing with presiding U.S. District Judge Robart. As you will recall, the 2012 consent decree requires the City of Seattle to adopt reforms to address Department of Justice allegations of biased policing and excessive force. I’m certain not all our presenters were completely satisfied with the direction of the hearing but it was clearly historic to hear the Judge declare from the bench that “Black Lives Matter.”**

So there’s an election going on! I’ll be wearing my Hillary Clinton shirt at our next meeting and I invite all supporters to do the same! The hate rhetoric isn’t cooling off on the Republican side and it’s time to come together and defeat the odious cipher. Yes, I know, you supported Bernie (so did everyone in my family). But listen, it’s over. Your vote is valuable. Why throw it away by not voting or voting for someone who doesn’t have a chance; take it from someone who wishes she could say she didn’t vote for independent John Anderson in 1980. He tried to buck the two-party system and now, when I just searched for him on Wikipedia, his name doesn’t even come up in the first 6 suggestions. You never know what can happen and your choice can help elect he-who-shall-not-be-named, as my vote helped elect Ronald Reagan.

At our September 14th meeting, Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold will give us an update on what she’s been up to (a lot!). We will also officially nominate the 34th District’s endorsed candidates for the State House, Reps. Eileen Cody and Joe Fitzgibbon. And we will have a mini-forum for the 7th congressional district candidates Pramila Jayapal and Brady Walkinshaw, and then proceed to an endorsement in that race.

Please join like-minded progressives on September 6th at 6:00 at Drinking Liberally at Pizzeria 22.